FREE Ecommerce Email Marketing Automation Guide

Looking for ecommerce email marketing automation guide?

– This is the one!

Here you will learn tips & tricks to master email marketing automation from head-to-toes:

1. Automated emailing tips,
2. Email examples,
3. Emailing sequences,
4. Shows how to do ecommerce email marketing automation completely for FREE.

“Money is in the list”

You might have heard the saying.

Email marketing is the best digital marketing practice that offers the maximum return on investment aka ROI.

If you are an e-commerce business owner or you want to create a store, you should know that email marketing accounts for over 7% of user acquisitions.

Fun fact: By sending emails tactically at regular intervals, you can make your list members your customers.

So, in this article, you are going to get a few email automation tips to help you achieve the hidden treasure.

Email Automation Tips for E-commerce Websites

Here, I have classified the ecommerce email marketing automation sequence according to the occasions it gets sent.

You must reap the benefits of it to bring your store to the next level.

Let’s have a look at the types of e-commerce email sequence should look like.

Note: Nothing is set into stone – be as creative as you can with your ecommerce email marketing automation campaigns.

1. Welcome Email

As the name implies, a person should get a welcome email from you as soon as they join your list.

While most of the store owners think an email hampers user satisfaction, about 74.4% of customers expect a welcome email from stores. And, you will get an approximate 33% more long-term engagement with the welcome emails as well.

Of course, you can send a welcome email to a customer who just bought something from your website. Still, you get many more people signing up for your list from the pop-ups, sidebar forms, etc. Thus you have to welcome them to the family.

2. New Customer Email Series

The name says it all; you need to send a series of emails to the people who buy for the first time.

The welcome email is the first thing you should send.

Another possibility is to send an email after the expected time for the product delivery passes. It’s your opportunity to send an email seeking whether they received the product or not.

Why should I ask you to spend time on the old customers rather than finding new ones? Well, the statistics show the old customers spend 67% more than the new ones.

3. E-Commerce Receipts

You must send the details of the product and price right after the purchase. Given that a typical e-commerce receipt contains details of the purchase, it gets over 70% open rate.

Almost every e-commerce platform has the specification to send receipts built right into it. Or, you can even use third-party tools for that.

You need to include all the details of the product (photo, price, transaction number, etc.) along with the recommended products (to trigger another sale) and the email address to revert back if they have any questions.

4. Abandonment Cart Email Series

If you are a store owner, you might have noticed a significant percent of cart abandonment. Some people add products to the cart and they leave the site without checking out.

An independent web research company in the UK conducted research that showed over 67% of online carts get abandoned. There are many reasons for them to leave the cart, forgetting about a browser tab, being one of them.

So, you should take the responsibility to remind them of the products they added to the cart and never checked out.

So what you should include in ecommerce email marketing automation?

First Email: Reminder (24 hours later)

You just tell your customer he/she added a product to the cart and didn’t check out.

In order to increase the chance of them getting back to the cart, you can add some of the benefits of the product along with its picture.

I recommend you don’t add any discounts in this email.

Second Email: Objection Handling (48 hours later)

If the first email doesn’t work out, you can ask them the reason behind the reluctance to check out even after adding the product to the cart.

Use the subject line to lure them to reply.

Running this campaign for a month would get you a series of data to improve your marketing technique.

Third Email: Offering a Discount (72 hours later)

Maybe, some of your abandoned customers may buy the product if you extend an irresistible discount to them.

Well, you can try!

Offer 5-10% and see the progress.

Don’t forget to add a link to the cart, using which they can continue checking out.

4. Email Nurture Series

When a customer finishes purchasing a product, you can seduce them to buy more by sending follow-up emails.

Moreover, usually, there are about 47% of people on your list who are yet to make a purchase.

So, how should you approach the email nurture series?

Education Emails

You can send a few informational emails to your customers.

Let’s assume you are running an e-commerce store of mobile cases. Then, you can send emails describing the advantages of different cases (rugged, polycarbonate, etc.)

Brand Awareness

A large chunk of your customers is interested in knowing more about your brand.

You can send a single or a series of emails to make them aware of your brand and how you stand out.

Stories from Customers

Everyone loves a story by someone outside the business, especially when it involves the benefits of the product.

So, you can share the testimonials of your customers, but in a personal manner.

5. Re-Engagement Email Series

No matter how many emails you send, some of your list members may overlook your emails and stop engaging.

So, you have to take a leap and send some compelling emails.

A few example emails are given below.

Email 1: We Have Missed You

You should sound like you are really sad that a genuine customer is going away.

I recommend using some images to imply your grief.

Email 2: Big Discount; 50% off

Everybody loves discounts, even you.

Hence, you can send your customers some really interesting discount codes.

Make sure you offer something they will look forward to because they haven’t been with you for long. Don’t forget to include the discount percentage in the subject line.

Email 3: You will be Deleted from X Days

Send an email saying he/she will get deleted or unsubscribed from your list of prestigious customers and once it happens, they will not be able to receive any luring discounts.

I am sure a significant percentage of inactive customers will jump onto your store.

A Few Additional Tips

• You must have a valid email in the from field, so that they can revert back.
• The subject line is a direct factor that affects the open rate of the emails. So, you should make it personal (add their first name) and avoid salesy words right away. Keep the subject line short and concise.
• Create an urgency (for example, a discount code valid only for 24 hours)
• Make the email responsive.

Free Ecommerce Email Marketing Automation Tools

I have got a list of email delivery tools to automate your email marketing campaigns.

Omnisend [Free Trial, $25 per month]: An all-in-one email marketing platform for ecommerce store owners, including cart recovery email series and a lot more.

NotifyVisitors [ Free Trial, $49 per month ] – An automated email marketing tool for shopify stores and small entrepreneurs to elevate their users’’ experience. It offers features like A/B testing, personalization, automated campaigns, detailed analytic reports and many more.

Klavio [Free Trial, $25 per month]: If you want to make your email and Facebook campaigns personal by analyzing the data, Klavio is the best platform. (Free up to 250 contacts). Click here if you are a Shopify user.

Remarkety [Free Trial, $25 per month] : Do you want to reach out to your existing or abandoned customers? Remarkety is the best retention tool for it. Click here if you are a Shopify user.

Abandoned Protector Plus: The best Shopify extension to bring people back to buying products they abandoned. Available for $8 with a limit of 3000 emails per month.

CartHook: CartHook offers two specs; Shopify Checkout Funnel and Abandoned Cart Recovery. You can get it for $99 per month.

BetaPage: Cool email marketing resource list. There is everything you might need – from newsletter templates to awesome tools.

How to Setup the Ecommerce Email Marketing Automation in MailChimp?

MailChimp is a widely used email marketing solution available for free. And this email automation guide will teach you how to use it.

You can use it without spending a dime until you have 2000 email subscribers. Once you get the milestone passed, you can upgrade to a premium plan, starting at $10 per month.

Here, you will read how to setup an ecommerce email marketing automation in MailChimp. Just follow the steps given below.

Step 1:

First, you have to log into your account and then click here to visit the automation configuration page.

There, you have to hit the Add Automation button.

Step 2:

You will get Explore Automations page at this step.

MailChimp has templates for almost every situation. In case you don’t find the needed one at the first glance, you can search and land on it.

And, click Add Automation button beneath the description.

Step 3: 

Now, you need to name the campaign and choose the list from a modal pop-up. Hit next once you finish doing it.

For each campaign, MailChimp adds a specific number of emails by default. You can customize it to fit your needs.

Step 4:

You should hit Design Email now.

What you get here is a form to enter the email information including the name of the email, subject, preview text, from name, and email address.

Don’t forget to fill all the fields. Click Next.

Step 5:

At this step, you have to choose a template and edit it, so that it matches your campaign. MailChimp has many templates for different purposes, which you can select from.

You can even send a test mail at this step.

Once finished, hit Save and Return to the Workflow.

Step 6: 

The workflow settings include workflow name, from name, from email, and tracking options.

You can change it at this step.

Step 7: 

Now that you have finished designing your emails and setting up the workflow, you can review all the activities here.

You will get a checklist of things you did so far.

Review them and hit Edit if you want to make changes to anything.

Once you are ready, press Start workflow to begin sending the automated emails.

Conclusion

Now it’s your turn.

You knew ecommerce email marketing automation can make you conquer new horizons, don’t you?

So, you shouldn’t wait any longer. I have given you all the necessary tools to start with. Just choose the necessary tools and kick-start your campaign right NOW.

Looking for more ecommerce email marketing automation hacks?  Check out these cool tips how to send cold emails.

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The post was made by Catalin Zorzini. Catalin is the founder of Matcha Tea [a daily blog about matcha tea, meditation, and Japanese culture] and Mostash [a digital marketing studio].